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The QC, Vol. 93, No. 19 • March 8, 2007

2007_03_08_001

"he Voice of Whittier College Since 1914
Quaker Campus
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Issue 19-Volume 93
QC@WHITTIER.EDU
Star gazing at Luminarias 2007
JUSTIN VELASCO / QC NEWS EDITOR
Glamour filled evening at Lumies
Some amount of students packed into the Roosevelt Hotel where they mingled and
danced on their own private dance floor with a DJ up above on a balcony. The Spring
Formal was held on Saturday, March 3. For more photos, see Campus Life page 7.
Yasmin Khorram
QC Staff Writer
Whittier's annual Spring Formal,
Luminarias, was held at The Roosevelt
Hotel in Hollywood last Saturday,
March 3. Dressed to impress, over
300 students filled the Moroccan
themed room ready to mingle and
dance into the early hours of the morning. According to Campus Safety and
Roosevelt Hotel employees, the event
turned out to be a safe environment.
The DJ, sophomore Marc Pacheco, was spinning tunes up above
the dance floor, while tasty hors
d'oeuvres and drinks were served.
Red canopies, and rich looking centerpieces decorated and set the theme of
MidnightOasis. Many party-goers got
the chance to rub elbows with an elite
list of young Hollywood. "Lumies
was fun, we got to meet celebrities all
night," first-year student Paul S wesey
said. "I saw Lindsay Lohan, and she
looked less than perfect."
see LUMINARIAS, page 5
Student retention
rates on the rise
Julia Kitlinski-Hong
QC News Asst. Editor
The retention rate from the fall
semester to the spring semester for
this year's freshman class is 91.8
percent, which is an increase from
last year's 88.1 percent. The factors
for the rise have not been measured
yet, but there is a strong belief that
the living-learning community has
something to do with it. "I would
have to agree that living-learning
communities played a role in improving the fall to spring retention
for first-year students," Dean of
Students Jeanne Ortiz said.
Professor of Mathematics and
Associate Dean Faculty Fritz Smith
does the calculations for retention
rates said that he also heard from
Professors that their freshman writing groups seem more connected.
Another reason that there may be a
higher retention rate for freshmen
this year is because they are more
condensed. "All the freshmen live
in either Johnson or Stauffer, which
could make them more connected,"
Smith said.
Assistant Dean for First Year
Programs Lisa Bortman, whose
job was created specifically to help
the freshmen transition smoothly
into the college experience, seems
to have made a significant impact
as well.
"She has become the 'go-to'
person for first-year students and
has helped them deal with transition issues, academic problems and
personal situations," Ortiz said. Not
only has Bortman helped students,
but it seems if she has shown everyone how to aid the freshmen in
adapting.
"The knowledge and experience she brought in helping the
College understand and make
changes to improve first-year retention has paid off already," Ortiz
said. "Retention improves when
you match students with the right
school from the beginning," Bortman said. "This yearthe admissions
did a good job finding academically
strong students that are benefiting
from Whittier." Bortman also mentioned that she did two surveys for
see RETENTION, page 6
Journalist discusses
reporting in Iraq
Esther Chan
QC News Asst. Editor
Los Angeles Times reporter
Tony Perry visited Lecturer of
English Language and Literature
John Mitchell's Introduction to
Journalism class on Tuesday,
March 6, where he spoke about his
experience as a reporter embedded
in Iraq.
He was in Iraq during the invasion and has been to Iraq three
times since, for two-month periods
of time. Perry was embedded with
the First Marine Expeditionary
Force based out of Camp Pendleton
in San Deigo. They were in charge
of patrolling Al-Manar, an area
West of Baghdad about the size of
Wyoming.
Perry said the most disturbing
thing that he saw was not the dead
bodies, but the shattering effect
that it had on the young men in the
aftermath of combat. "It took all
the glamour out of it," Perry said.
"It was what they don't show in
the movies. "It was like seeing the
walking dead," Perry said.
Perry talked about his experience with the Marines in how the
difference between life and death
was only half an inch, and the importance of listening to orders and
working as a unit. "Half an inch
lower, and he would have bled to
death or severed his spine," he said.
Perry described all the protective
plates the marines had to wear as
the trade off between flexibility
and protection.
Perry said that he gets irritated
with reporters that make profound
statements about things that they
do not have a clue about. One of
his colleagues wrote about Hebefa
as a peaceful agriculture village
by the Euphrates River. "But I've
been to Hebefa, it's Hell on Earth
where people try to kill you,"
Perry said.
Perry also had a discussion
about the interrogation practices of
the American forces. In his opinion,
America lost the high moral ground
after the alleged illegal torturing
of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Perry
did expose the complexities with
the interrogation practices when he
see JOURNALIST, page 5
nesses
strike
campus
Alle Kamela
QC Staff Writer
Over 200 severely sick students
have visited the Health Center within
the last week alone, according to
Director of Health Services Colleen Leidy. For the last two weeks,
students have been plagued with
extremely high temperatures, aching
bodies, sore throats, nausea, vomiting, decreased appetites, coughs and
fatigue.
According to Leidy, the stark
difference between the recent condition of students and other times
during the year is, "The students are
sicker, they have higher temperatures.
They 're feeling worse than usual. We
know that there are some that just
stay in their room that don't even
come in here and I feel bad for them
as well."
The sickness has been diagnosed
as a flu or airborne virus, which means
it spreads through the air when people
cough and sneeze. "A lot of the students come in with viruses and there's
nothing really that'll help, so we just
give them the free stuff [medicine]
and then they don't have to go out
and get it," Leidy said.
First-year student Alexandra
Holtz described the struggle to
perform everyday functions while
living with the virus. "It's just made
it really hard to function normally,"
Holtz said. "It's hard to eat. I haven't
really had a full meal in two weeks.
My appetite is maybe a quarter of what
it was before. It's hard to study, hard
to homework- all I wanna do is sleep
and that's it, but I can't."
Many students find it hard to take
care of themselves with inept facilities
on campus such as the ventilation systems in the dorms, or the lack thereof.
"In the residence halls, particularly
the older residence halls like Stauffer
and Johnson, there's no ventilation
system," sophomore Resident Advisor Aundria Miller said. "You have to
open your windows to get fresh air in,
but if it's raining and cold outside, you
don't wantto and so you're breathing
in each other's germs."
Leidy advises students to rest
see ILL, page 5
INTO THE WOODS
nto the Shannon Center to see the
new play.
A&E, Page 11
SOFTBALL
Whittier's softball team wins nine
of their last 10 games.
Sports, Page 16

"he Voice of Whittier College Since 1914
Quaker Campus
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Issue 19-Volume 93
QC@WHITTIER.EDU
Star gazing at Luminarias 2007
JUSTIN VELASCO / QC NEWS EDITOR
Glamour filled evening at Lumies
Some amount of students packed into the Roosevelt Hotel where they mingled and
danced on their own private dance floor with a DJ up above on a balcony. The Spring
Formal was held on Saturday, March 3. For more photos, see Campus Life page 7.
Yasmin Khorram
QC Staff Writer
Whittier's annual Spring Formal,
Luminarias, was held at The Roosevelt
Hotel in Hollywood last Saturday,
March 3. Dressed to impress, over
300 students filled the Moroccan
themed room ready to mingle and
dance into the early hours of the morning. According to Campus Safety and
Roosevelt Hotel employees, the event
turned out to be a safe environment.
The DJ, sophomore Marc Pacheco, was spinning tunes up above
the dance floor, while tasty hors
d'oeuvres and drinks were served.
Red canopies, and rich looking centerpieces decorated and set the theme of
MidnightOasis. Many party-goers got
the chance to rub elbows with an elite
list of young Hollywood. "Lumies
was fun, we got to meet celebrities all
night," first-year student Paul S wesey
said. "I saw Lindsay Lohan, and she
looked less than perfect."
see LUMINARIAS, page 5
Student retention
rates on the rise
Julia Kitlinski-Hong
QC News Asst. Editor
The retention rate from the fall
semester to the spring semester for
this year's freshman class is 91.8
percent, which is an increase from
last year's 88.1 percent. The factors
for the rise have not been measured
yet, but there is a strong belief that
the living-learning community has
something to do with it. "I would
have to agree that living-learning
communities played a role in improving the fall to spring retention
for first-year students," Dean of
Students Jeanne Ortiz said.
Professor of Mathematics and
Associate Dean Faculty Fritz Smith
does the calculations for retention
rates said that he also heard from
Professors that their freshman writing groups seem more connected.
Another reason that there may be a
higher retention rate for freshmen
this year is because they are more
condensed. "All the freshmen live
in either Johnson or Stauffer, which
could make them more connected,"
Smith said.
Assistant Dean for First Year
Programs Lisa Bortman, whose
job was created specifically to help
the freshmen transition smoothly
into the college experience, seems
to have made a significant impact
as well.
"She has become the 'go-to'
person for first-year students and
has helped them deal with transition issues, academic problems and
personal situations," Ortiz said. Not
only has Bortman helped students,
but it seems if she has shown everyone how to aid the freshmen in
adapting.
"The knowledge and experience she brought in helping the
College understand and make
changes to improve first-year retention has paid off already," Ortiz
said. "Retention improves when
you match students with the right
school from the beginning," Bortman said. "This yearthe admissions
did a good job finding academically
strong students that are benefiting
from Whittier." Bortman also mentioned that she did two surveys for
see RETENTION, page 6
Journalist discusses
reporting in Iraq
Esther Chan
QC News Asst. Editor
Los Angeles Times reporter
Tony Perry visited Lecturer of
English Language and Literature
John Mitchell's Introduction to
Journalism class on Tuesday,
March 6, where he spoke about his
experience as a reporter embedded
in Iraq.
He was in Iraq during the invasion and has been to Iraq three
times since, for two-month periods
of time. Perry was embedded with
the First Marine Expeditionary
Force based out of Camp Pendleton
in San Deigo. They were in charge
of patrolling Al-Manar, an area
West of Baghdad about the size of
Wyoming.
Perry said the most disturbing
thing that he saw was not the dead
bodies, but the shattering effect
that it had on the young men in the
aftermath of combat. "It took all
the glamour out of it," Perry said.
"It was what they don't show in
the movies. "It was like seeing the
walking dead," Perry said.
Perry talked about his experience with the Marines in how the
difference between life and death
was only half an inch, and the importance of listening to orders and
working as a unit. "Half an inch
lower, and he would have bled to
death or severed his spine," he said.
Perry described all the protective
plates the marines had to wear as
the trade off between flexibility
and protection.
Perry said that he gets irritated
with reporters that make profound
statements about things that they
do not have a clue about. One of
his colleagues wrote about Hebefa
as a peaceful agriculture village
by the Euphrates River. "But I've
been to Hebefa, it's Hell on Earth
where people try to kill you,"
Perry said.
Perry also had a discussion
about the interrogation practices of
the American forces. In his opinion,
America lost the high moral ground
after the alleged illegal torturing
of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Perry
did expose the complexities with
the interrogation practices when he
see JOURNALIST, page 5
nesses
strike
campus
Alle Kamela
QC Staff Writer
Over 200 severely sick students
have visited the Health Center within
the last week alone, according to
Director of Health Services Colleen Leidy. For the last two weeks,
students have been plagued with
extremely high temperatures, aching
bodies, sore throats, nausea, vomiting, decreased appetites, coughs and
fatigue.
According to Leidy, the stark
difference between the recent condition of students and other times
during the year is, "The students are
sicker, they have higher temperatures.
They 're feeling worse than usual. We
know that there are some that just
stay in their room that don't even
come in here and I feel bad for them
as well."
The sickness has been diagnosed
as a flu or airborne virus, which means
it spreads through the air when people
cough and sneeze. "A lot of the students come in with viruses and there's
nothing really that'll help, so we just
give them the free stuff [medicine]
and then they don't have to go out
and get it," Leidy said.
First-year student Alexandra
Holtz described the struggle to
perform everyday functions while
living with the virus. "It's just made
it really hard to function normally,"
Holtz said. "It's hard to eat. I haven't
really had a full meal in two weeks.
My appetite is maybe a quarter of what
it was before. It's hard to study, hard
to homework- all I wanna do is sleep
and that's it, but I can't."
Many students find it hard to take
care of themselves with inept facilities
on campus such as the ventilation systems in the dorms, or the lack thereof.
"In the residence halls, particularly
the older residence halls like Stauffer
and Johnson, there's no ventilation
system," sophomore Resident Advisor Aundria Miller said. "You have to
open your windows to get fresh air in,
but if it's raining and cold outside, you
don't wantto and so you're breathing
in each other's germs."
Leidy advises students to rest
see ILL, page 5
INTO THE WOODS
nto the Shannon Center to see the
new play.
A&E, Page 11
SOFTBALL
Whittier's softball team wins nine
of their last 10 games.
Sports, Page 16